*** Recommended *** Since I didn’t see “Once on this Island” when it first toured back in 1990, I didn’t know anything about it. In fact, I thought I’d be seeing a happy musical, an island story. “Once on this Island” is musical, but with its dark and not very magical themes, it just didn’t resonate for me. 3 Spotlights
***RECOMMENDED*** For the fifth time in the past 14 years the play "Stop Kiss" is being presented here in Chicago, and each production has been presented by vastly different companies. Ironically, four of the five (including this one) have opened in the month of January. Do we as Midwesterners crave dark and intellectually stimulating works the most to brood over during one of our darkest and traditionally brutally coldest months? Sure seems like it! That's not to say that "Stop Kiss" is a totally heavy piece of theatre that will send you into a deep depression. On the contrary, it is an oftentimes humorous and endearing glimpse at the emerging love that is generated between two very different people. With the alarming rate of anti-Semitic acts rising in the United States and Europe, as well as the increase in hate crimes committed against the LGBTQ community at large (particularly the appalling homicide rate for transgender women of color), now seems to be an opportune time to revisit playwright Diana Son's 1998 off-Broadway hit in a solidly staged co-production of Pride Films and Plays and The Arc Theatre. 3 SPOTLIGHTS
★★★★★ Recently I saw a play about Hitler’s tasters which may have been the start of Meghan Brown’s “The Tasters”, now in its World Premiere at Rivendell Theatre. Brown’s story is not about an actual leader but instead is about a Government that has four major leaders during what appears to be a people’s revolution. The fear of their food being laced with poison causes them to use tasters. The women that we meet are Bianca (Paula Ramirez), Corrine ( Daniellla Pereira) and Elyse (Shariba Rivers).
★★★★★ Marriott Theatre has brought back the true “Grease” with its book, music and lyrics by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. This is the Chicago version and is quite different that the “Hollywood”, John Travolta/Olivia Newton-John film. This play was written by Chicagoans about a Chicago high school ( Taft High School is Rydell) and this version if far meatier. At the helm of making this pleasurable theatrical experience take place is director Scott Weinstein who truly knows how to use the in-the-round stage at Marriott. He keeps the action moving and allows all four sides of the theater great views.
*** Recommended *** “Top Girls” is an unusual play written by British playwright Caryl Churchill. Since I’d seen the play before (a Dunes Summer Theatre production in 2010), I knew where it was going. A word of warning, what with the weird dream sequence in Act I, will be more or less incomprehensible – at least until Act III, when you’ll figure it out. “Top Gun” was written as a reaction to Margaret Thatcher’s election in England, so it has a definite feminist slant. Because it’s ‘non-linear’, Churchill skips through time, which explains why the rest of us end up clueless. 3 Spotlights
The Towle Theater’s annual Season Preview is always a lovely event. It’s a short evening, just about two hours, with a reception (light hors d’oevres and drinks in the lobby) followed by a season sampler, typically a short scene or a single song from each. Two plays and two musicals make up the Towle 2020 season, “Theater with Vision - It’s all in how you look at it”. Managing Director Jeff Casey introduced each play, explaining how and why it was chosen.
*** Recommended *** After a couple of weeks off for the holidays, I look forward to the Young Playwrights Festival which is almost always the first theatrical opening of the year. This is the 33rd year of the annual event sponsored by Pegasus Theatre Chicago. This is a chance to see the future of Chicago theater – maybe the future of American theater. If you go, you’ll see three very different plays written by two outstanding high school students, and a third who graduated and started college in the meantime. I always gain valuable insight about the things on kids’ minds today. 3 Spotlights.
*** Recommended *** My first reaction after seeing “Dance Nation” was a qualified ‘interesting’. I just didn’t understand why adults were cast as tweens. However, the more I thought about it, the more it dawned on me. Tween angst is real! Some of the things that tweens are dealing with – things like fitting in, being bullied, zits, weight, menstruation, problems at home – are so embarrassing a young actor might have difficulty even voicing them. The Steppenwolf cast – adults of all ages – are well able to access those angst-y memories of tween-hood. “Dance Nation” was more than interesting, it was quirky, intense and insightful. 3 Spotlights
**** Recommended **** Champions of Magic is an amazing show! Several of the award-winning stars have appeared on the CW’s “Penn and Teller: Fool Us. The five are: illusionists, Young and Strange; mind reader, Alex McAleer; escape artist, Fernando Velasquez; and close-up magician extraordinaire, Kayla Drescher. I was in awe watching them perform. The show includes plenty of audience participation, too. Hurry and get your tickets for this family friendly spectacle. 4 Holiday Spotlights
**** Recommended **** Goodman Theatre’s production of “The Santaland Diaries”, written by David Sedaris and adapted for the stage by Joe Mantello. In his 
early days as a struggling writer in New York, Sedaris took a job as an elf at Macy’s Department Store. Steven Strafford stars in the one-man show directed by Steve Scott. “The Santaland Diaries” is irreverent, mischievous, snarky, and really, really funny. 4 Holiday Spotlights
